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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §15.3.15.pr

Son's Promise and Payment of Father's Debt

Passage 2335 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian discusses whether an action for what was turned to account should be granted when a son-in-power makes a promise to pay his father's debt and subsequently makes the payment.

[ULPIANUS libro secundo disputationum. ] §15.3.15.prSi filius familias constituerit quod pater debuit, uidendum est, an de in rem uerso actio dari debeat.
[ULPIAN, Disputations, book 2] If a son-in-power has promised to pay what his father owed, it must be considered whether an action for what was turned to account should be given.
atquin non liberauit patrem: nam qui constituit, se quidem obligat, patrem uero non liberat.
And yet, he has not released his father; for he who promises to pay indeed binds himself, but does not release his father.
plane si soluat post constitutum, licet pro se uideatur soluisse, hoc est ob id quod constituit, in rem tamen uertisse patris merito dicetur.
Clearly, if he pays after the promise, although he may seem to have paid on his own behalf, that is, on account of what he promised, it will nevertheless be rightly said to have been turned to the account of the father.

Notes

  1. §15.3.15.prconstituerit — This refers to the praetorian pact of a promise to pay an existing debt (constitutum pecuniae). The son's promise to pay his father's debt does not by itself discharge the father from his original obligation; it merely binds the son under a new promise.
  2. §15.3.15.prlicet pro se uideatur soluisse — The conjunction licet (although) introduces a concessive clause with the subjunctive uideatur.
  3. §15.3.15.prin rem tamen uertisse patris merito dicetur — The subject of dicetur (it will be said) is contextually understood to be the money paid. uertisse is used intransitively (or reflexively) meaning "to have been turned to the account of" the father (patris).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §15.3.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:15.3.15.pr

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